The instant invention relates to a horizontally mounted fluid-driven device characteristic of those items generally employed within residential property grounds for purposes of landscape ornamentation and the like, with an alternate use of said device in a commercial display application such as upon a sign board or the like for purposes of attracting and directing the attention of passersby thereto, wherein the fluid medium whereby driven motion is imparted to said device may be either by naturally occurring atmospheric wind current forces acting upon various of a planar plurality of spaced radially configured normally vertically dependent horizontally mounted pivot vanes to thereby cause rotary displacement of said device, with the alternate use of a directed water stream upon various of the planar plurality of spaced radially configured normally vertically dependent horizontally mounted pivot vanes to provide an alternate and/or supplemental fluid-drive means force in combination with naturally occurring atmospheric wind current forces within the ambient atmosphere air envelope, to also thereby impart rotary motion to said device by another drive means but in a manner similar to that caused by the naturally occurring wind current forces as will hereinafter be more fully detailed and described, and in particular the automatic cyclic positioning of said pivot vanes from drive through feather (i.e., minimum vane surface resistance to drive fluid current direction) to drive position configurations during driven rotary motion displacement of said device.
Heretofore, certain wind motors have employed radially spaced pivotal blades or vanes mounted in a horizontal configuration on axes perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the impeller per se of the motor device wherein the blade or vane drive and feather positions are either operable or in part manually adjustable by compound mechanical means as respectively taught in U.S. Pat. No. 1,087,586 to Ivancevich, dated Feb. 17, 1914, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,707,521 to Rogers, dated May 3, 1955, rather than being automatically operable as taught by the instant invention.
Exemplary of a wind-driven device for attracting attention to billboards is a teaching embodied in that disclosure as set forth by Reeves in U.S. Pat. No. 2,532,572 dated Dec. 5, 1950, wherein a plurality of radially spaced minature sailboats are assembled upon a horizontally planar pivotal support surface which is displaced in rotary motion by wind current forces acting upon the vertically positioned flexible and deformable sail surfaces respectively of said minature sailboats, with, however, the attendant problem of sail back-winding as is well known to those in the art basics of sailing boats.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,076,713 to Southwick, dated Oct. 28, 1913, a horizontally mounted air or water driven motor is provided with a plurality of radially spaced vertically disposed support members respectively between which are positioned vertically pivotal rod-connected blades or vanes which close and open in a shutter-like operable manner as rotationally presented to the current direction of a drive fluid (i.e., either wind or water) to drive or feather as the case may be relative to drive fluid current direction and radial rotation position of said vertically pivotal rod-connected blades or vanes with respect thereto. Structural variations evolved from the above-cited Southwick teaching are as respectively taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,555,776 to Twiford, dated Sept. 29, 1925; 2,094,603 to Keene, dated Oct. 5, 1937; 3,897,170 to Darvishian, dated July 29, 1975; 4,039,849 to Mater et al, dated Aug. 2, 1977; and 4,047,833 to Decker, dated Sept. 13, 1977.
Additional horizontally mounted air, wind or current motors, with vane means providing variable pitch capability relative to the fluid current drive-force direction and further with respect to radial rotation position of the motor vanes thereto are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 662,737 to Puszkar, dated Nov. 27, 1900, and 3,995,170 to Graybill dated Nov. 30, 1976, both teaching flexible vanes operable on axes parallel to the axis of impeller rotation, and functionally similar to the foregoing, but structurally teaching rigid curved blade vanes providing variable pitch through compound mechanical linkage means, is that disclosure as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,093,194 to Rusconi, dated June 11, 1963.
It should be understood that some of the features of the instant invention have, in some respects, certain structural and functional similarities to those teachings separately set forth in the prior art disclosures heretofore cited and briefly discussed. However, as will hereinafter be pointed out, the instant invention is distinguishable from said earlier inventions in one or more ways in that the present invention has utility features and improvements in the art of horizontal fluid-driven devices not heretofore known.